There are conventional controllers capable of accommodating an information processing device therein. For example, there is a controller capable of accommodating a mobile telephone, with a left key plate and a right key plate sandwiching the mobile telephone therebetween.
With the controller described above, a mobile telephone is accommodated only by the left and right key plates sandwiching the mobile telephone therebetween. Therefore, the mobile telephone can possibly come off in the up-down direction or in the front direction, and the controller can thus quite easily come off the mobile telephone.
Thus, the present application discloses a controller that is unlikely to come off an information processing device when attached to the information processing device.
An example game controller described herein is removably attachable to a main unit having a main unit-side slide member and configured to execute a game process. The game controller includes an operation section and a controller-side slide member. The controller-side slide member protrudes from a first surface of the game controller and is configured to slidably engage with the main unit-side slide member in a slide direction. The controller-side slide member has a first end and a second end in the slide direction, and the game controller is configured to be attached to the main unit by inserting the controller-side slide member into the main unit-side slide member from the first end. The game controller includes a stop member. The stop member is configured to resist a slide movement, in an opposite direction, of the controller-side slide member against the main unit-side slide member, the opposite direction being a direction opposite to a direction in which the controller-side slide member is inserted into main unit-side slide member. The stop member is configured to protrude from the first surface of the game controller or from a side surface of the controller-side slide member, which side surface is substantially perpendicular to the first surface, and the stop member is on the second end side of a center of the controller-side slide member in the slide direction.
The stop member may be movable between a first position and a second position, and the stop member in the first position may be more protruding from at least one of the first surface of the game controller and a surface of the controller-side slide member as compared with the stop member in the second position, wherein the stop member may be biased toward a protruding state in the first position.
The stop member may be configured to move to a position, as the second position, at which the stop member is in an accommodated state in which the stop member is accommodated inside the game controller.
The game controller may further include a movable member. The movable member is configured to be moved by an operation by a user, wherein the stop member is moved at least from the first position to the second position in response to the movable member being operated by a user.
The movable member may be biased to be placed at a reference position, and may be configured to move at least from the reference position in response to an operation by a user. The stop member may be coupled to the movable member, and the stop member may be in the first position when the movable member is placed at the reference position and the stop member comes into the second position in response to the movable member moving from the reference position.
At least a portion of an end portion of the stop member on the first end side in the slide direction may be formed so that a thickness of the stop member in a moving direction from the first position to the second position decreases toward a distal end thereof.
The operation section may be on a front surface of the game controller. The first surface may be a side surface relative to the front surface.
The movable member may be on a surface on a reverse side of the front surface.
The game controller may further include a projection. The projection is in the vicinity of the movable member of the game controller, wherein the projection projects past a surface that the movable member is on.
The projection may be a button.
The game controller may include a depressed portion defined by the first surface and the controller-side slide member so as to have a C-shaped cross section along a direction perpendicular to the slide direction. The stop member, in the protruding state, may protrude from at least one of surfaces defining the depressed portion.
The stop member may not protrude out of a space in the depressed portion into a space outside the game controller in the protruding state.
The stop member may be configured to protrude, in a protruded state, from the controller-side slide member in a direction perpendicular to the slide direction and parallel to the first surface.
The stop member may be at an end portion on the second end side of a center of the controller-side slide member in the slide direction.
The game controller may further include at least one terminal. The at least one terminal is on the first end side of the stop member in the slide direction and is electrically connectable to the main unit.
The terminal may be at an end portion on the first end side of the controller-side slide member.
The first surface may be one of side surfaces of the game controller. The operation section may include an input section on one of the side surfaces of the game controller that corresponds to the first end side in the slide direction.
The main unit may include a display section. The main unit-side slide member may be at least on one of left or right side surfaces relative to a surface of the main unit that the display section is on. The controller-side slide member may be configured to be inserted into the main unit-side slide member from an upper side of the main unit-side slide member.
The operation section may include a directional input section enabling inputs of at least four directions of up, down, left and right.
The directional input section may output a two-dimensional value representing a direction and a quantity that have been input.
The directional input section may be an input device including an input member that is configured to be tilted or slid, from a reference position, in at least four directions of up, down, left and right.
The operation section may include a save-an-image input section for giving an instruction to save an image being displayed on a display of the main unit.
The game controller may further include an infrared image-capturing device.
The movable member may be on the front surface.
The movable member may be on both the front surface and on a surface on a reverse side of the front surface.
The present specification also discloses an information processing device to which the game controller can be attached, and discloses a controller system (referred to also as an information processing system) including the game controller and the information processing device. The present specification also discloses a method to be carried out in the information processing system. The present specification also discloses an information processing program that causes a computer to execute some of the processes to be executed on the information processing system, the information processing device or the game controller (in other words, causes a computer to function as some of the various units of the information processing system, the information processing device or the game controller).
With the game controller set forth above, it is possible to reduce the possibility that a controller attached to an information processing device comes off the information processing device.
These and other objects, features, aspects and advantages will become more apparent from the following detailed description when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.